This invention relates to a food preparation appliance, and in particular to a portable, battery-operated food stirrer that is adapted to be used on a variety of different sized cooking vessels. The food stirrer is a cordless appliance with a housing containing a rechargeable battery.
The food stirrer of this invention is designed for use in the home, a restaurant, or a commercial cooking establishment for stirring sauces, broths, gravies, confections, and other temperature sensitive food preparations that customarily must be diligently monitored to prevent scorching or excessive thickening. Although the food stirring appliance of this invention may be an item of convenience for use in the home, in a restaurant kitchen or a commercial cooking establishment, the food stirrer can be an economic necessity. In the restaurant kitchen the concurrent preparation of the many different dishes and courses that go into a meal for many different diners creates a scheduling nightmare. The kitchen chef is unable to continually monitor the preparation of sauces and gravies that are being prepared. While an over-thickened sauce or gravy may be salvaged by thinning, if the sauce or gravy has been scorched, the taste is destroyed and the sauce must be discarded. Similarly, in the commercial cooking environment, often large vats or pots are used to prepare larger volumes of ingredients for prepared commercial foods. In such situations, the burning of an ingredient such as a confectionery topping could cause an interruption in the production and serious delay in the scheduling of other steps in the processing.
Prior art stirring devices have been proposed. In Stevens, U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,685 issued Dec. 12, 1967, there is disclosed a battery-operated stirring unit for sauce pans and the like with a configuration of the general type proposed. The stirring unit of Stevens includes a housing containing a motor with a pair of adjustable yokes that seat on the top rim of a sauce pan. The yokes are adjustable in span to permit the stirring unit to be used on different sized pots or pans. The stirring unit includes an elongated adjustable shaft with a cross-bar having a series of depending stirring blades for contacting the bottom of the pan. The cross-bar allows adjustment of the blades for accommodating different diameter pots or pans. Rotation of the housing is prevented by downturned handles on the yokes which engage the handle or handles of the sauce pan or pot, functioning as a stop.
In Wells, U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,310, issued Jul. 26, 1994, a self-supporting house hold stirring appliance is disclosed. This device includes a four-paddle, stirring mechanism that contacts the bottom of the pan and provides the support for the housing containing the drive motor. The unit has an extending handle that projects outside the pan and contacts the handle of the pan to maintain the position of the stirring appliance. To center the stirring appliance in the pan, the size of the paddles must be nearly identical to the size of the sauce pan. Each of the prior art units has certain disadvantages which has apparently inhibited wide spread use.
Although applicant contemplates that the unit described in this application may be provided in a commercial size and a household size, the design is suitable for a great variety of different sized pans and pots. The food stirrer of this invention has depending posts that contact the handle or handles of the vessel on which it is mounted in order to maintain its stationary position relative to its rotating paddle. However, because of the clamping action of the spring-loaded support arms, the appliance can be used on vessels without handles or handles positioned low on the vessel. Additionally, the support mechanism for mounting the food stirrer on a vessel is designed to provide self-centering, and to increase its grip as the sauce or other condiment thickens and paddle resistance increases. Furthermore, the specially designed paddle blades are useable on a range of different diameter pots and pans.